Distribution of free colour TVs from September

Chennai, July 22: The DMK government today announced that distribution of free colour televisions to the poor, a popular poll promise, would commence in the first week of September and said it had allocated a sum of Rs 750 crore for the purpose.

Presenting the budget for the year 2006-07, Finance Minister K Anbazhagan said 30,000 colour television sets would be distributed to the households which did not have colour TVs in the first phase.

As announced in the DMK election manifesto, the project would be launched in the first week of September to commemorate the birth anniversaries of late Chief Minister C N Annadurai on September 15 and Rationalist leader Periyar E V Ramasamy on September 17.

''The fact that a provision of Rs 750 crore has been made in the budget, apart from the expenditure for 30,000 colour TVs in the first phase, shows the committment of the government to implement the scheme,'' Mr Anbazhagan said.

He said a committee of legislators, headed by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and comprising representatives of political parties in the assembly, was formed to ensure transparency in procurement and proper distribution of the TVs.

As decided by the committee, the 30,000 TVs would be procured through national competitive bidding in the first phase and through international open competitive bidding in the next phase. The national competitive bids would be received and finalised by July 24, he added.

UNI